Most vehicle doors have at their inboard sides a door or map pocket. Vehicle occupants use the door pockets to store various articles or items such as maps, papers, pens and pencils, cassette tapes, etc. Items are often maintained in the door pockets in a disorganized state because the items are smaller than the pockets and, consequently, depending on the nature of the items, tend to freely move about during vehicle operation. Sometimes occupants capriciously dump or place items in the door pockets without attempting to organize them. The items become further mixed and scrambled together in the door pockets as more items are placed therein. Adding further to the chaos and confusion among the items in the door pockets is that the less bulkier items tend to filter towards the bottom of the door pockets. In essence, regardless of whether or not occupants try to orderly arrange the items in the door pockets, the items tend to become jumbled in a disorderly arrangement making it difficult to find and grasp any particular item.
Furthermore, most of the storage capacity of door pockets is not used because the pockets typically have a generic shape which is inefficient for storing arbitrarily shaped items such as those mentioned above. Accordingly, much of the pocket volume is wasted when storing items.
To address these problems, containers having a set of compartments for storing items have been developed for use with door pockets. Some of these containers are insertable within the door pockets while others rest over the pockets. For instance, BMW has offered a coin holder which rests over the opening of the door pocket of its BMW 530 model. However, this holder and other types of known containers use only a portion of the door pocket. Thus, items stored in the other portion of the door pocket are still maintained in a disorganized state. Furthermore, if the container rests over a portion of the door pocket, then other items stored in other areas of the pocket may roll underneath the container. An occupant is then compelled to remove the container to access the items.
Another problem associated with door pockets is that the shapes of pockets vary among vehicle models. Thus, a container fittable within a door pocket of one vehicle model may not fit within the pocket of another vehicle model. Accordingly, many different sized containers having a similar design need to be made for all of the variously shaped door pockets among the vehicle models. Making different sized containers of one design for different vehicle models is efficient if there is only one type of container such as a coin holder.
However, making different sized containers of many designs, such as a CD holder, a storage bin, a trash bin, etc., for different vehicle models is inefficient. A need exists for an adaption or transforming mechanism capable of transforming variously shaped door pockets to a uniform or standardized shape so that only one standardized container for each design needs to be made. In essence, different vehicle models would have uniform or standardized door pockets with the use of the adaption or transforming mechanism.
Similar to the problem associated with differently shaped door pockets among vehicle models is that the shapes of pockets may also vary in one vehicle model. For instance, a driver-side and a passenger-side door pocket may have a similar arbitrary shape which are the mirror images of one another. Thus, a container fitting within the driver-side door pocket may not fit properly within the passenger-side door pocket. Accordingly, two containers of one design need to be made for the two door pockets. A need exists for an adaption or transforming mechanism capable of transforming the shape of the two door pockets to a uniform or standardized shape so that only one standardized container for each design needs to be made.